By Akinwale Kasali
“Nigeria remains backward because Nigerians don’t believe in the future of the Nation”
By Akinwale Kasali
Former Military President, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, popular as IBB, has deplored the state of the Nation. He is, also, of the view that anybody seeking to be Nigeria’s President in 2023 should be in his/her 60s.
Speaking on Arise TV in an exclusive interview, he said that as the 2023 Presidential Election draws closer, the nation must produce a President that is in his 60s. He thus dashed the hopes of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by ruling them out of the age bracket.
The top two politicians are eyeing the Presidential seat. Atiku is, already in his 70s. By 2023, Tinubu, according to him, will be 72.
The man who ousted President Muhammadu Buhari from power in 1985 said that the major reasons why the Nation has failed to progress and achieve the dreams of the founding fathers was because Nigerians no longer believed in the future of their own country.
IBB also pointed out that the nation is endowed with both human and natural resources, and disclosed that that there are numerous individuals in their 60s whom he said had the capacity to become President and could effectively run the country.
These individuals, he said, have been traversing the six geo political zones marketing their acceptability and capacity.
He, however, lamented that Nigerians are the people creating, and at the same time, destroying their own country.
IBB identified bad leadership as yet a major reason for the socio-economic challenges facing Nigeria.
“If you get a good leadership that links with the people and tries to talk with the people; not talking on top of the people, then we would be okay.
“I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader. That is, a person, who travels across the country and has a friend virtually everywhere he travels to and he knows at least one person that he can communicate with.
“That is a person, who is very verse in economics and is also a good politician, who should be able to talk to Nigerians and so on. I have seen one, or two or three of such persons already in his sixties.”
He said he believed so much in the future of the nation, but sad that the people of the nation destroy they what it has created.
“I do believe in the future of Nigeria, but Nigerians don’t believe in the future of their country. They created and they destroy”, he said.
